John Cabot
1450 - 1499
Place of Birth: Castiglione Chiavarese
Biography:
In 1471 Caboto was accepted into the religious
confraternity of St John the Evangelist. Since this was one of the city's
prestigious confraternities, this suggests that he was already a respected
member of the community. He may have been born slightly earlier than 1450,
which is the approximate date most commonly given for his birth.
Following his gaining full Venetian citizenship in 1476
(after having lived there for 15 years), Caboto would have been eligible to
engage in maritime trade, including the trade to the eastern Mediterranean that
was the source of much of Venice's wealth. He presumably entered this trade
shortly thereafter. A 1483 document refers to his selling a slave in Crete whom
he had acquired while in the territories of the Sultan of Egypt, which then
comprised most of what is now Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.This is not
sufficient to prove Cabot's later assertion that he had visited Mecca, which he
said in 1497 to the Milanese ambassador in London.In this Mediterranean trade,
he may have acquired better knowledge of the origins of the oriental (West
Asian) merchandise he would have been dealing in (such as spices and silks)
than most Europeans at that time.
"Zuan Cabotto" (i.e. John Cabot) is mentioned
in a variety of Venetian records of the 1480s. These indicate that by 1484 he
was married to Mattea and already had at least two sons.Cabot's sons are
Ludovico, Sebastian, and Sancto.The Venetian sources contain references to
Cabot's being involved in house building in the city. He may have relied on
this experience when seeking work later in Spain as a civil engineer.
Cabot appears to have gotten into financial trouble in
the late 1480s and left Venice as an insolvent debtor by 5 November 1488. He
moved to Valencia, Spain, where his creditors attempted to have him arrested by
sending a lettera di raccomandazione a giustizia ("a letter of
recommendation to justice") to the authorities.While in Valencia,
"John Cabot Montecalunya" (as he is referred to in local documents)
proposed plans for improvements to the harbour. These proposals were rejected,
however.Early in 1494 he moved on to Seville, where he proposed, was contracted
to build and, for five months, worked on the construction of a stone bridge
over the Guadalquivir river. This project was abandoned following a decision of
the City Council on 24 December 1494. After this Cabot appears to have sought
support from the Iberian crowns of Seville and Lisbon for an Atlantic
expedition, before moving to London to seek funding and political support. He
likely reached England around the middle of 1495.
Legacy:
Cabot Tower (1897) in St. John's, Newfoundland,
to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Cabot's voyage.
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England
James Cook
1728 - 1779
Place of Birth: the village of Marton in Yorkshire
Biography
James Cook was born on 27 October 1728 in the village of Marton in Yorkshire and baptised on 3 November in the local church of St. Cuthbert, where his name can be seen in the church register. He was the second of eight children of James Cook, a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam near Kelso, and his locally born wife, Grace Pace, fromThornaby-on-Tees. In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years schooling, he began work for his father, who had by now been promoted to farm manager. For leisure, he would climb a nearby hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude.Cooks' Cottage, his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, having been moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick, in 1934.
Legacy
Cook's 12 years sailing around the Pacific Ocean contributed much to European knowledge of the area. Several islands such as Sandwich Islands(Hawaii) were encountered for the first time by Europeans, and his more accurate navigational charting of large areas of the Pacific was a major achievement.[62]
To create accurate maps, latitude and longitude must be accurately determined. Navigators had been able to work out latitude accurately for centuries by measuring the angle of the sun or a star above the horizon with an instrument such as a backstaff or quadrant. Longitude was more difficult to measure accurately because it requires precise knowledge of the time difference between points on the surface of the earth. The Earth turns a full 360 degrees relative to the sun each day. Thus longitude corresponds to time: 15 degrees every hour, or 1 degree every 4 minutes.[63]
Cook gathered accurate longitude measurements during his first voyage due to his navigational skills, the help of astronomer Charles Green and by using the newly published Nautical Almanac tables, via the lunar distance method—measuring the angular distance from the moon to either the sun during daytime or one of eight bright stars during night-time to determine the time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and comparing that to his local time determined via the altitude of the sun, moon, or stars. On his second voyage Cook used the K1 chronometer made by Larcum Kendall, which was the shape of a large pocket watch, 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter. It was a copy of the H4 clock made by John Harrison, which proved to be the first to keep accurate time at sea when used on the ship Deptford's journey to Jamaica, 1761–62.[64]
Cook succeeded in circumnavigating the world on his first voyage without losing a single man to scurvy, an unusual accomplishment at the time. He tested several preventive measures but the most important was frequent replenishment of fresh food.[65] It was for presenting a paper on this aspect of the voyage to the Royal Society that he was presented with the Copley Medal in 1776.[66][67] Ever the observer, Cook was the first European to have extensive contact with various people of the Pacific. He correctly postulated a link among all the Pacific peoples, despite their being separated by great ocean stretches (see Malayo-Polynesian languages). Cook theorised that Polynesians originated from Asia, which scientist Bryan Sykes later verified.[68] In New Zealand the coming of Cook is often used to signify the onset of colonisation.[4][6]
Cook carried several scientists on his voyages; they made several significant observations and discoveries. Two botanists, Joseph Banks, and Swede Daniel Solander, were on the first Cook voyage. The two collected over 3,000 plant species.[69] Banks subsequently strongly promoted British settlement of Australia.[70][71]
Several artists also sailed on Cook's first voyage. Sydney Parkinson was heavily involved in documenting the botanists' findings, completing 264 drawings before his death near the end of the voyage. They were of immense scientific value to British botanists.[4][72] Cook's second expedition included William Hodges, who produced notable landscape paintings of Tahiti, Easter Island, and other locations.
Several officers who served under Cook went on to distinctive accomplishments. William Bligh, Cook's sailing master, was given command ofHMS Bounty in 1787 to sail to Tahiti and return with breadfruit. Bligh is most known for the mutiny of his crew which resulted in his being set adrift in 1789. He later became governor of New South Wales, where he was subject of another mutiny—the only successful armed takeover of an Australian government.[73] George Vancouver, one of Cook's midshipmen, later led a voyage of exploration to the Pacific Coast of North America from 1791 to 1794.[74] In honour of his former commander, Vancouver's new ship was also christened HMS Discovery (1789). George Dixon sailed under Cook on his third expedition, and later commanded his own expedition.[75] A lieutenant under Cook, Henry Roberts, spent many years after that voyage preparing the detailed charts that went into Cook's posthumous Atlas, published around 1784.
Cook's contributions to knowledge were internationally recognised during his lifetime. In 1779, while the American colonies were fighting Britain for their independence, Benjamin Franklin wrote to captains of colonial warships at sea, recommending that if they came into contact with Cook's vessel, they were to "not consider her an enemy, nor suffer any plunder to be made of the effects contained in her, nor obstruct her immediate return to England by detaining her or sending her into any other part of Europe or to America; but that you treat the said Captain Cook and his people with all civility and kindness, ... as common friends to mankind."[76] Unknown to Franklin, Cook had met his death a month before this "passport" was written.
Cook's voyages were involved in another unusual first: The first animal to circumnavigate the globe was a goat ("The Goat"), who made that memorable journey twice; the first time on HMS Dolphin, under Samuel Wallis. She was then pressed into service as the personal milk provider for Cook, aboard HMS Endeavour. When they returned to England, Cook presented her with a silver collar engraved with lines from Samuel Johnson: "Perpetui, ambita bis terra, praemia lactis Haec habet altrici Capra secunda Jovis.". She was put to pasture on Cook's farm outside London, and also was reportedly admitted to the privileges of the Royal Naval hospital at Greenwich. Cook's journal recorded the date of The Goat's death: 28 March 1772.[77]
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England
Francis Drake
1540 - 1596
Place of Birth: Tavistock, Devon, England
Biography
Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon, England. Although his birth is not formally recorded, it is known that he was born while theSix Articles were in force. "Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the Judith" (1566). This would date his birth to 1544. A date of c.1540 is suggested from two portraits: one a miniature painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1581 when he was allegedly 42, the other painted in 1594 when he was said to be 53.[7]
He was the eldest of the twelve sons of Edmund Drake (1518–1585), a Protestant farmer, and his wife Mary Mylwaye. The first son was reportedly named after his godfather Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Because of religious persecution during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549, the Drake family fled from Devonshire into Kent. There the father obtained an appointment to minister to men in the King's Navy. He was ordained deacon and made vicar of Upnor Church on theMedway. Drake's father apprenticed Francis to his neighbour, the master of a barque used for coastal trade transporting merchandise to France.The ship master was so satisfied with the young Drake's conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, he bequeathed the barque to Drake.
Legacy
On 26 September, Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth with Drake and 59 remaining crew aboard, along with a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasures. The Queen's half-share of the cargo surpassed the rest of the crown's income for that entire year. Drake was hailed as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the Earth (and the second such voyage arriving with at least one ship intact, after Elcano's in 1520).
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England
William Dampier
1651 - 1715
Place of Birth: Hymerford House in East Coker, Somerset
Biography:
William Dampier was born at Hymerford House in East Coker, Somerset, in 1651. He was baptised on 5 September, but his precise date of birth is not recorded. He was educated at King's School, Bruton. Dampier sailed on two merchant voyages to Newfoundland and Java before joining the Royal Navy in 1673. He took part in the
two Battles of Schooneveld in June of that year.
Dampier's service was cut short by a catastrophic illness, and he returned to England for several months of recuperation. For the next several years he tried his hand at various careers, including plantation management in Jamaica and logging in Mexico, before he eventually joined another sailing expedition.
Legacy:
He made important contributions to navigation, collecting for the first time data on currents, winds and tides across all the world’s oceans that was used by James Cook and Horatio Nelson.
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England
Samuel White Baker
1821-1893
Place of Birth:London, England
Biography
Samuel White Baker was born on 8 June 1821 in London, as the offspring of a wealthy commercial family. His father, Samuel Baker Sr., was a sugar merchant, banker and ship owner from Thorngrove, Worcestershire with mercantile ties in the West Indies. His younger brother, Col. Valentine Baker, known as "Baker Pasha", was initially a British hero of the African Cape Colony, theCrimean War, Ceylon and the Balkans, later dishonoured by a civilian scandal. Valentine had successfully sought fame in theOttoman Empire, notably the Russian-Turkish War in the Caucasus and the War of Sudan from Egypt. Samuel's other siblings were: James, John, Mary "Min" (later Cawston), Ellen (later Hopkinson) and Anna Eliza Baker (later Bourne).[2]
Baker was educated at a private school at Rottingdean, next at the College School, Gloucester (1833–1835), then privately atTottenham (1838–1840), before completing his studies in Frankfurt, Germany in 1841. He studied and graduated MA as Civil Engineer. While commissioned, at Constanța, Romania, where, as Royal Superintendent, he designed and planned railways, bridges and other structures across the Dobrogea region, from the Danube to the Black Sea.
On 3 August 1843 he married his first wife, Henrietta Ann Bidgood Martin, daughter of the rector of Maisemore, Gloucestershire. Together, they had seven children: Agnes, Charles Martin, Constance, Edith, Ethel, Jane & John Lindsay Sloan.[2] His brother John Garland Baker married Henrietta's sister Eliza Heberden Martin and after a double wedding, the four moved to Mauritius, overseeing the family's plantation. After spending two years there the desire for travel took them in 1846 to Ceylon, where in the following year he founded an agricultural settlement at Nuwara Eliya, a mountain health-resort.
Aided by his family, he brought emigrants from England, together with choice breeds of cattle, and before long the new settlement was a success. During his residence in Ceylon he wrote and published The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon (1853) and two years later Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon (1855). After twelve years of marriage, his wife, Henrietta, died of typhoid fever in 1855, leaving Samuel a widower at the age of thirty-four. His two sons and one daughter (Jane) also died young. Baker left his four surviving daughters in the care of his unmarried sister Mary "Min".
After a journey to Constantinople and the Crimea in 1856, he went to Constanța, Romania and acted as Royal Superintendent for the construction of a railway and bridges across the Dobrogea, connecting the Danube with the Black Sea. After that project was completed he spent some months on a tour of south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor.
Legacy:
He published his narrative of the central African expedition under the title of Ismailia (1874). Cyprus as I saw it in 1879 was the result of a visit to that island. He spent several winters in Egypt, and travelled in India, the Rocky Mountains and Japan in search of big game, publishing in 1890 Wild Beasts and their Ways.
He kept up a correspondence with men of all shades of opinion upon Egyptian affairs, strongly opposing the abandonment of the Sudan by the British Empire and subsequently urging its reconquest. Next to these, questions of maritime defence and strategy chiefly attracted him in his later years.
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